Want luxury and value? These are your cars

Joining the Lexus IS250 at the top of our list were the Volvo V70 and Acura TL. Each offer luxury amenities, such as supple leather seating and eye-catching trims, along with more modern features, like sophisticated navigation systems, voice-activated features, or advanced safety devices like the Volvo's "blind spot information system." All also cost well below $40,000, even when a few major options are added.

That's important — because most luxury car shoppers aren't eager to spend more money than they need to. But there's an exception, Edwards says. Luxury-vehicle shoppers will be willing to pay for some items that might be called "functional luxury," such as automatic wipers or "smart" cruise control systems — features that readily redeem themselves. It's when luxury features don't enhance functionality and buyers are already ponying up for the brand experience that customers are more conscious of that extra money, because it adds cost but not value, he says.

A buyer must also consider depreciation, insurance premiums, fuel expenses, maintenance and repair — all aspects included in Vincentric's ownership costs, which vary greatly from model to model. For instance, the five-year estimate for the $11,300 Yaris stands at $31,250, while the ownership costs top $150,000 for several of the most expensive models from Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which ring in at sticker prices of over $100,000.

David Wurster, Vincentric's president, says that because luxury cars are considerably more expensive than more mainstream models, shoppers should be especially concerned with depreciation, which isn't always tied to sticker price. Using 2007-model-year data, for example, a $34,300 BMW 328xi, which is priced just below the $35,060 Jaguar X-Type sedan when new, is estimated to be worth over $3,000 more than the Jaguar after five years.

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Another thing to consider is gas mileage, Wurster says, as luxury cars tend to use more fuel.

You're on the right track if you want to keep maintenance costs down, too. But with fuel prices and insurance premiums especially contributing to ownership costs (which have risen faster than the sticker prices of the cars themselves), Wurster says maintenance costs are the exception. Because automakers have been extending the time and mileage between oil changes and other service visits, he explains, it's no longer the value differentiator it once was, and a smaller piece of the pie (the pie of long-term ownership costs, that is) than it used to be.

Perhaps the least tangible measure of value is a luxury automaker's reputation. Luxury-car buyers are becoming increasingly interested in cars from automakers that demonstrate a high level of environmental responsibility.

The environment, along with philanthropy and labor and trade policies, says Pedraza, are rapidly growing factors that lead well-informed luxury shoppers to look to a certain brand as greener luxury for the buck, even if the costs of the eco-friendly brand and its model add up to a bit more, he says.

Which again goes to show that the value of a car can be much greater than its cost.

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